Opinions of Saturday, 11 March 2023

Columnist: Lawrence Appiah-Osei

The NPP has done it again

The NPP flag The NPP flag

I wrote the article “Election 2024: Is it about John Mahama or Ghana?” last week. In that article, I stated that the first foolish question by the NPP before Election 2024 was that “what can John Mahama do in just four years as President? I went ahead and warned that the NPP will either make another foolish statement or ask another foolish question before the end of March 2023.

Now this week, during the launch of John Mahama’s campaign to be the next president, he told the good people of Ghana that when he becomes the President in 2025, he will abolish the ex-gratia starting from the Executive and then persuade the others to join in.

This was all the sin John Mahama committed and you have the NPP telling him to refund all the ex-gratia he has received since becoming a Member of Parliament. What actually worried me was that the person who gave the NPP this message wasn’t a politician. He is Dan Kwaku-Yeboah, a mere sports journalist, who knows nothing about the law and governance. Unfortunately, that message happens to be one of the silly ones.

Do you all remember when Nana Addo approved for his wife to be paid as Article 71 holder and Ghanaians got angry? Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo was alleged to have paid back what was paid to her as an Article 71 holder. Do you again remember that these same people told Mrs. Lordina Mahama to also pay back what she received?

The issue here is that the NPP has turned politics into personal attacks on the next first family of Ghana. When it comes to insults to John and Lordina, the NPP knows no boundaries. Their hatred for the next first family makes them look silly.

Do we now understand when Alan Kyeremanteng said that Nana Addo and Bawumiah have made it difficult for them to have a campaign message? Let the NPP tell us what is left for them to do for Ghana after 2024. Even it has become difficult for them to do anything between now and 2024, as our credit rating with Moody and S&P is junk and our debt to GDP is 104%.

My Fellow NDC members, the NPP has become a silly political party and has nothing left in them. They are struggling in the gutters, and in African politics, if we don’t go down with them in the gutters, we will not be able to beat them in 2024. People may disagree with me, but I strongly believe that we should beat them to their own game. A pig is hurt if you beat it in the gutters. Why do you think an NPP gets so angry when you insult it back? Think about it.
Mahama reba.